Shades of Deadly

Being Aboriginal, you constantly have to prove yourself to non-Aboriginal people if you don't fit the stereotype.

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me... "You don't look Aboriginal??"

There are so many stereotypes around what Aboriginal people are 'supposed' to look like, where they're 'supposed' to live and what they're 'supposed' do.

Shades of Deadly was first created in June 2019 to challenge these stereotypes and is a platform to celebrate and recognise the amazing work our mob out there are doing.

This campaign is for all the deadly mob out there!! Working hard and inspiring us and their Community every day. We see you! <3

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Flash forward to 14th December 2019.

Rob Vigors and a woman, believed to be Karen Ridge, are understood to have walked onto the Wirramanda's property in Mildura.

The residents at the property, two Aboriginal artists, had the flag flying on their car in Mildura, Victoria.

But Rob and the Karen seemed to take issue with the flag being displayed.

The video was filmed by Robby Wirramanda, and later shared on Twitter by a family member and it went viral with #TooStrongForYouKaren

Following this appalling incident, there has been recent news, videos and comments spreading around Aboriginality and the need to justify ourselves.

Let's get this straight...

Aboriginality is not about judging each other by colour.

Aboriginality is about our connection to Community, culture, land and people which shapes us and our identity. Identity is a product of story and journey that shapes our spirit, values and decision making.

Family, community and self gives us that identity.

We don’t have to conform and comply to a definition that was imposed on us from the time of colonisation.

These stereotypes are created to try and divide and rule us. We can’t afford to get sucked into this fighting against self and one another.

Earlier in the year when we released the campaign, Shades of Deadly we wanted to challenge Aboriginal stereotypes and celebrate all mob all shades of deadly. It’s something we are passionate about and will continue to speak up about.

After the racist video rant by Karen and Rob in Mildura went viral we re-shared our Shades of Deadly campaign to remind ourselves of the positivity and pride in our identity.

So many of you embraced the campaign, reposting photos and stories of mob embracing themselves and their identity using the hashtag #ShadesOfDeadly and tagging us.

We love this one, Zoey Weir shared on FB showing 5 generations of strong Aboriginal women which includes her 106 great grandmother and 5 year old great great granddaughter.

Thanks for flooding our newsfeeds with images of proud mob of all ages, all #ShadesOfDeadly!

We've always been #TooStrongForYouKaren

We've also just released Shades of Deadly adults tee and kids tank top to celebrate all our shades! Check them out 🖤🖤